Ranked #1
The Long March
The Long March
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss a foundation story for China as it was reshaped under Mao Zedong. In October 1934, arou... Read more
29 Nov 2018
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50mins
Ranked #2
The Thirty Years War
The Thirty Years War
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the war in Europe which begain in 1618 and continued on such a scale and with such devas... Read more
6 Dec 2018
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50mins
Ranked #3
Aristotle's Biology
Aristotle's Biology
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the remarkable achievement of Aristotle (384-322BC) in the realm of biological investiga... Read more
7 Feb 2019
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50mins
Ranked #4
The Mabinogion
The Mabinogion
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the eleven stories of Celtic mythology and Arthurian romance known as The Mabinogion, mo... Read more
10 May 2018
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48mins
Ranked #5
The Plague of Justinian
The Plague of Justinian
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the plague that broke out in Constantinople 541AD, in the reign of Emperor Justinian. A... Read more
21 Jan 2021
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48mins
Ranked #6
Crime and Punishment
Crime and Punishment
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the novel written by Dostoevsky and published in 1866, in which Raskolnikov, a strugglin... Read more
14 Nov 2019
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52mins
Ranked #7
The American Populists
The American Populists
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss what, in C19th America's Gilded Age, was one of the most significant protest movements s... Read more
15 Jun 2017
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49mins
Ranked #8
al-Biruni
al-Biruni
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Central Asian polymath al-Biruni and his eleventh-century book the India.Born in... Read more
31 Aug 2017
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41mins
Ranked #9
The Mexican-American War
The Mexican-American War
Melvyn and guests discuss the 1846-48 conflict after which the United States of Mexico lost half its territory to the Un... Read more
28 Jun 2018
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49mins
Ranked #10
Enzymes
Enzymes
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss enzymes, the proteins that control the speed of chemical reactions in living organisms. ... Read more
1 Jun 2017
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48mins
Ranked #11
Louis Pasteur
Louis Pasteur
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and work of Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) and his extraordinary contribution to med... Read more
18 May 2017
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51mins
Ranked #12
The Cultural Revolution
The Cultural Revolution
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Chairman Mao and the revolt he led within his own party from 1966, setting communists ag... Read more
17 Dec 2020
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48mins
Ranked #13
The Egyptian Book of the Dead
The Egyptian Book of the Dead
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the text and context of The Book of the Dead, also known as the Book of Coming Forth by ... Read more
27 Apr 2017
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46mins
Ranked #14
Dorothy Hodgkin
Dorothy Hodgkin
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the work and ideas of Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin (1910-1994), awarded the Nobel Prize in C... Read more
3 Oct 2019
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52mins
Ranked #15
Thomas Paine's Common Sense
Thomas Paine's Common Sense
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Thomas Paine and his pamphlet "Common Sense" which was published in Philadelphia in Janu... Read more
21 Jan 2016
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45mins